Twenty members and guests of the Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 gathered on Thursday November 10th for their monthly meeting. This was the last meeting before the delivery of canned food goods and donations to the Autauga Interfaith Care Center so a number of folks brought cans and checks to contribute. Sift drinks and snacks were provided to enjoy before the meeting while 1st Lt Rob Schwartz played a number of songs on his guitar culminating with Dixie where everyone rose and sang along. Chaplain Brantley led everyone in an Invocation including recognition of the passing of a member and another's wife recently. Color Sgt John Dennis led everyone in the pledges and salutes to the flags after a mention of Veterans Day and thanking those in attendance for their service. Commander Waldo then recited the SCV Charge. He then called 1st Lt Schwartz to the front to present Rob with a Division recognition award and relating the litany of activities Rob engages in for the betterment of the camp including cemetery maintenance, participation in meetings and community events and assuming his leadership officer role. Upcoming events including the Tallassee reenactment, holiday parades, Christmas Social and Salvation Army bell ringing were highlighted and 2nd Lt Karl Wade provided a report out on the Dragoons' booth at the recent Autauga County Fair and encouraged everyone to sign up to help the camp at the red kettle bell ringing.
The guest speaker for the meeting was Dr. William Dean who is Associate Professor of History at the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB. He spoke on Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his military experience and challenges during the War for Southern Independence. Davis was the most qualified man to assume the Presidency of the Confederacy. He was a graduate of West Point amd served in the Blackhawk Wat as a colonel leading Mississippi volunteers. They were among the first to use rifled weapons which made an impression on Davis and he was quick to implement these when later responsible for modernizing the US Army as Secretary of War. Davis was first married to President Zachary Taylor's daughter who died of malaria. Davis too contracted malaria and was plagued by its affects for the rest of his life, often having to spend days during his Presidency in bed to recover from bouts. He also was wounded and carried shrapnel in his foot received during the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican War.
As President Franklin Pierce's Secretary of War he made many reforms which ironically served to improve the military his Confederate forces would subsequently face during the WBTS. He stressed studying military technology and tactics and sent observers to Europe and Algiers during conflicts there. The US War Doctrine used against the American Indians was developed by modifying observations of the French fighting the Algerians. Davis added four regiments to the Army, implemented a promotion by merit system, and improved artillery and arsenals as part of these military reforms.
He was elected to the US Senate and was serving there when he resigned to follow his home state in secession. When he was called to serve as President of the Confederate States he travelled to Montgomery AL where he busied himself among other things with creating an Army and Navy for the new nation. He also started the buildup of arsenals including that at nearby Selma.
The War for the Confederacy was difficult as they were severely outnumbered and had a much smaller industrial base. When the Confederacy lost land to the advancing Union Army, they lost men and resources. Davis' biggest problem was state governors who were reluctant to send home guards to fight in and defend other states - part of the dilemma of states rights. One reason the capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond was to convince Virginia to follow her Southern sister states in secession but this placed the nation's capital within 100 miles of Washington DC and Union troops. Davis was a brave leader who once actually rode out to the front lines from Richmond brandishing revolvers before being escorted back out of harm's way.
Davis also had a tenuous relationship with his generals. Albert Sydney Johnston was a good friend of Davis and early in the War was over the Confederate forces in the west but Davis couldn't readily send reinforcements to the west as defense of the capital was imperative. This defensive posture instead of quickly taking the fight on the offensive was something for which Davis has often been criticized. Johnston lost Fort Henry in Corinth Mississippi after Davis sent reinforcements too late from Pensacola FL. Davis subsequently moved troops out of New Orleans which left the vital port largely undefended. Albert Johnston was killed at Shiloh. Davis had a confrontational relationship with (former US Vice President Breckenridge, Joseph Johnston who actually challenged Davis to a duel, and Beauregard called Davis a traitor.
Joseph Johnston was relieved of duty by Davis after Seven Pines and replaced by Robert E. Lee. Lee had designs on taking the fight to the North but already ran into issues with local citizenry support in forays into Maryland including the Battle of Seven Pines. After Chancellorsville, Lee invaded Pennsylvania and targeted Gettysburg specifically to take a shoe factory there for provisions for his troops. Johnston took command of the Army in the Western theatre but again was criticized for his cautionary defensive posture in the fall of Vicksburg and during the early Atlanta campaign although it should be recognized that his forces were outnumbered 3:1 as Sherman's troops approached Kennesaw Mountain and Atlanta; he attempted to use General Wheeler's cavalry to disrupt the Union supply lines. Johnston was replaced by General Hood who launched numerous counteroffensive strikes against Sherman but was forced to steadily withdraw.
There were good Confederate stands including at Spotsylvania/Wilderness but the loss of Vicksburg and the bloodshed at Gettysburg proved too much for the Confederacy. After a long period of defense including the advent of trench warfare at Petersburg, Grant's forces ultimately prevailed in the East. The Army of Northern Virginia essentially melted away from the steady onslaught and Confederate soldiers were increasingly pulled away by their family's pleads to come home to defend them from lawlessness and marauders. Logistics and most specifically the poor and disintegrating rail system in the South was a major hinderance to the Confederacy's war efforts. The lack of focus on the Western theatre was a strategic mistake. Personnel conflicts between Davis and his generals was a problem. But the loss of human resources as one quarter of the men of the South were killed and an additional one quarter were injured or maimed proved to be the downfall of the Confederacy's fight for independence.
